Construction management firm gBuild puts environmental best practices to work

Staff photo by Bob Carville
Doug Gianforte of gBuild Construction Managers says he started his company after years of working in the industry because he wanted to put his ideas for improving efficiencies and environmental concerns to work.

Courtesy photo
One of gBuild’s recent projects is the Perkins Student Center at the University of Delaware.

UWCHLAN — Doug Gianforte embraces an environmentally friendly yet cost-effective approach to construction management. For his clients, that’s a good combination, and it has helped grow his business, gBuild Construction Managers of Exton and Newark, Del., into a model of small business success.

This year gBuild Construction Managers has won two significant honors:

• the 2013 Construction Excellence Award from the State of Delaware Office of Budget and Management and Delaware Contractors Association for a University of Delaware project; and

• gBuild earned a spot on the 2013 Philadelphia 100, placing 11th as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the Philadelphia region as determined by The Entrepreneur’s Forum of Great Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Business Journal and the Wharton Small Business Development Center.

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So it may seem a bit unusual that while looking back on his career in the building trade, Gianforte can trace his steps to a time when, as a freshman civil engineering student, he entered a raw-egg eating contest in the Perkins Student Center at the University of Delaware. That contest occurred long before his 10 years working for a national contracting company plus another 12 years with a smaller regional firm, and it took place well before he launched gBuild in July 2009 from his home outside Downingtown in Uwchlan. But it did have its significance.

For one, that was the moment when he met his future wife, Jan, who he said would much later support him wholeheartedly as he approached her with a plan to start out on his own with a business run mostly out of their kitchen. And in an odd twist of fate, he would return to that same student center recently when the university hired him to oversee its renovation.

The student center project presented several challenges well suited to his company, Gianforte explained. Like many institutions of higher learning, the university is committed to being environmentally conscious with its building projects, from choosing the materials used in construction to minimizing the debris and dust created by the work. The estimated $3.6 million renovation included energy-efficient lighting, upgrades to heating and air conditioning systems, and converting an old bookstore into a student lounge with recycled stone and colorful, eco-friendly materials from award-winning manufacturer 3form. And not least of all, gBuild had to keep the dust out of the Scrounge — the center’s venerated snack bar.

“I started gBuild in 2009 because I wanted to focus on bringing sustainable building practices to every project,” Gianforte said. “There was too little focus on sustainability in the commercial construction world.”

Gianforte said he was inspired to take his own direction after years of working on projects for the pharmaceutical industry, which he said can be “huge energy hogs.”

“I often asked myself: How can these guys afford to do this?” he said. “I was going to work every day and saying: What are we doing?”

Founding a business during a recession with no outside investment was challenging. However, his guiding principles and persistence has grown his company to eight full-time and four part-time employees in four years. And along the way, gBuild has forged strong relationships with architects, suppliers, tradesmen and clients, Gianforte said.

“We’re only as good as the subs” he said, referring to the company’s various subcontractors. “It takes time to build these relationships.”

Also, gBuild has created useful links with hauling and refuse companies, but the goal is create as little waste for the landfills as possible. The firm typically diverts more than 85 percent of construction waste from the landfill. The company also develops specific indoor air quality programs — like the Scrounge dust control, for example — for all of its projects.

All gBuild employees are either LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited professionals or Green Advantage Certified, and the company promotes the use of low volatile organic compounds and low emissive adhesives, coatings and sealants, which Gianforte observed are the same substances that give a car “that new car smell.”

So after networking, making contacts, sending out emails, going to meetings and promoting an approach to building a better world in a better way, the company’s client list now includes the University of Delaware, Villanova University, Penn State University, Pennock Company, TEVA Pharmaceutical, Fraunhofer USA, Arkema, Fuji Film, QVC and FARO Technologies, among others.

Also, gBuild is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, a consortium of business leaders focused on transforming the way buildings and communities are designed.

Gianforte teaches sustainable building practices to the industry, which he said includes its share of skeptics.

“When we get a class together of construction professionals, typically none of them are there because they want to be,” Gianforte said. “They’re there mainly because their employer sent them there to learn about environmental best practices, and they sit with their arms folded like this. But it’s also rewarding when, after we begin and we see them take interest, they find they have been doing many of the things we’re talking about already and they get some ideas for doing things better.”

The company is also a certified B Corporation, with the “B” standing for “benefit.”

B Corporations are a new kind of company that solve social and environmental problems. Certified B Corporations meet higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability, according to an gBuild news release. But unlike traditional corporations, Certified B Corporations are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their employees, suppliers, community, consumers and environment.

“We became a B Corporation to demonstrate that we are different from our competitors and are far from traditional in our project approach,” Gianforte said. “It is our firm belief sustainable building does not have to cost more, needs to be implemented in some form on all projects and that this has contributed significantly to our success.

“We are committed to the triple bottom line, meaning we are accountable not only for generating profits but also for creating positive social and environmental impacts.”

And that is why Gianforte called his company gBuild. The “g” stands for green, and now too for growing.